Can You Really Close an ₦18M Real Estate Deal in 30 Days? (The Truth About Complex Sales)

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Ayede. I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making today's recording at home, so expect to hear some interruptions in the background, especially since it's a weekend, everybody's home, including all the neighbors. Now, the goal of this podcast is not to tell you about how my weekend went, but we're here to discuss things, sales and marketing related, all kinds of things relating to business education.

So if you're impressed, please spread the word so that your friends and family members, home and abroad can benefit from the questions that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of their choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want us to tackle the question of whether you can close fresh real estate deals in one month.

Again, the question is, can you close fresh real estate deals in one month? Now this is the reason why, because there's a listener of the podcast who reached out to me a few days ago and she's a sales employee in a real estate company in Lagos, of course, and and she was newly hired as a marketing staff. And you know, the ORGA pulled that move. You know that most people do. And by the way, if you run your own company, stop doing this move, you're not giving yourself the best chance for success.

You can't bring somebody into the company and say we had you as human resources. Then next week you now tell the person you know what you to you be selling or you bring in somebody for marketing. And then next you can now say, you know what, go and join the sales team or you hire somebody for accounting. And then next you say, I'll go and join the sales team. It's it's not like that. And you're not giving yourself the best chances for success because somebody who is a professional marketer and has done marketing across, you know,

3-4 companies, it doesn't necessarily mean that when you bring her in, you can just say, Oh yeah, go and sell. And it's going to work out. The same thing with human resources because I've heard those moves. You hire somebody as HR, after two weeks, you said where I go and sell, it doesn't work like that. You have somebody as accounting, it doesn't work like that. If that's how the thing used to work, all of us would be billionaires now.

Because you just hire anybody and throw anybody in the sales role and their money will just be coming in. Doesn't work like that. If you owned the company, all right, so they brought this baby in as marketing. The Babe has worked in 3-4 organizations before as marketer. That's what she's been doing, especially on the social media side. And then now they say, well, I'll go and do sales, no problem. She wants to be a good employee and she wants to develop herself, so she's going to go and do sales.

Orgas says go and do sales. She says no problem, I'll do it. But the problem is she has no support staff. And so she complained. Now. OK, Yeah, well, I came in as marketing, but, you know, I like a challenge, so let me do this thing. I need support staff. The next thing Orga hired another person, the person is a lawyer, which makes sense because if you're in a real estate, if you own a real estate firm, you definitely need a lawyer on staff to go and investigate title, to make sure that CFO is correct and you know, all these kinds of things to make sure that you don't go and put your hand inside something that will now blow up later on and be a serious liability for the company.

So he had a lawyer, then next thing he had a front desk officer and then he now told them why 3 of you go and do sales. Again employees, sorry employers, it doesn't work like that. You hire a marketer, after two weeks you say go and do sales. You hire a lawyer. The lawyer has what he's supposed to be lawyering. Next you say go and do sales. Then you have somebody who is front desk and then from front desk. Maybe I can understand that one and say front desk why I go and do sales, but that is just not how it works.

You know it can, it can't work, but you're not giving yourself the chances for success by bringing people in, telling them you do one role after 2-3 weeks, you now tell them why I go and do another role. Doesn't work like that anyway. So in this case now everybody is new on the job, lawyer is brand new, front desk is brand new, marketing person is brand new, all of them put together. Nobody has done one month in that company.

But then Orgas says that they have a sales target which is several millions. I won't call the million just in case what guys listening, because what guys listening, he will now know for sure that OK, this is my company. So several millions. And the problem is all these brand new people now baby lawyer, no experience before baby front desk person. OK, the marketing person has experienced course. She has worked in four companies before.

What they're meeting on ground is there is no system on ground for lead generation, no system on ground for generating contacts, no access to what the company has done before that they used to generate contacts. So this new team has no access to data and no access to any system that is going to help them be their goal. Oga has just thrown them into the mix and they say your quota is so, so, so, so, so million. Now, the cheapest piece of land that they have to sell, remember this company is based in Lagos.

The cheapest one that they have is 17.7 billion naira and I repeat 17.7 billion naira. That's the cheapest one that they have to sell. So in other words, the question now is, can you or can any of them sell an 18,000,000 naira plot of land only after being in real estate for one month? Let me repeat with all the story, all the background that I've given you so far, the question is honestly, between you and me, let's reason it now.

Is it possible that any of these people can sell a plot of land worth 18,000,000 naira in less than a month? The answer is yes, because everybody gets lucky once in a while. But that one will just be luck. Trust me, it will be luck. And yes, everybody gets lucky once in a while, but outside of luck. Now, let's be realistic. Is it feasible? Is it probable? Is it possible? The answer is it depends. So to figure it out now, let's look at different selling frameworks or different selling and marketing principles or different philosophies that we can use to understand the sales process.

So if we look at these different philosophies now, we'll now be able to say realistically whether this can happen. Because if we don't look at this from a well thought out process, basically all of us would just be guessing that way. 80 million is OK, I can do it or it can be done. But let's try and look at this logically. Now let me use one that every single Nigerian person listening to this podcast right now knows because it's the most popular.

I don't agree with it, but I use it because it's the most popular one. Just so that you know, we can vibe and that is AIDAAIDA or Ada as people like to call it is attention, interest, desire, action, AID, attention, interest, desire, action. Now that is a marketing framework or marketing and sales philosophy that says before you get somebody to buy, you have to build attention first in the market. Then you have to generate interest in the one particular person, really cook up that designer in the person, then get the person to take action.

Again, attention, interest, desire, action. You have to move people through attention. They didn't know of you before, so you have to get the attention. Then you have to get them interested. Then you have to cook up some desire in them and get them to take action. So using that framework, is it realistic that you're going to get somebody to drop 18,000,000 naira on a single purchase in less than one month? Let's be honest, it's unlikely that they didn't know you before, but you capture their intention, their attention.

You get interest in them, you build some desire, and you get them to take action. If it was like that, all of us would be billionaires, All of US18M. Not likely. However, let's reduce the amounts. If it's 180 K, OK, that's beginning to make sense that they didn't know you before. But you can build interest, you can get some attention, you can build some design, you can get them to take action. 180K. Yeah, it's doable.

A lot of us do that on a daily in our business. Whether you do catering or you make cake or you sell catfish or you sell advertising services or consulting services is possible. You meet somebody January 1st and by January 25th they transfer 180K into your account. Yeah. How about 18 K, 18,000 naira? Oh, definitely. None is easy. You can see that as well, going down, down, down, down, reducing the amount of money and reducing the level of risk that is involved, the level of complexity of the product.

You can see that. Yeah, it's more likely. But to say 18 M you can't be done though. But we'll be luck because you can't build attention, interest, desire and get people to action to drop 18 million in one month. Now Tom Hopkins, of course, in fact, he's even in the real estate space of I love his own frameworks because he's that easy to understand. Now, Tom Hopkins talks about two dynamics in sales. He sells, there's sales resistance and then there's sales acceptance.

Now sales resistance is the normal dynamic that everybody goes through, which is in the beginning, nobody wants to be sold, nobody wants to be hassled, nobody wants to be harassed. That's the reason why when you're chilling in public and you see somebody approaching you, I know that the person is a marketer in quote, as we say in Niger, you already start saying no thank you, no thank you. The person hasn't spoken. No, the person can be saying something that will change your life forever.

But you see the person approaching, you're like, no thank you, no thank you, no thank you. I'm not interested. Even though you don't know what it is. That is called sales resistance. Nobody wants to be hassled, nobody. So he says that. Tom Hopkins says the way that we overcome that dynamic is by running through trust, need help and hurry trust. We have to get these people to trust us that we're correct and we're credible need.

We have to be able to figure out the need that these people have because that is where we'll be able to move to the next stage, which is help where we make a proposal to say, OK, this is how my product or my service is going to be able to help you solve this particular biggie. Then hurry, we'll get them to take action. Shop, shop. Because if you get somebody to trust you, you figure out a need and you make a correct proposal or presentation, but we don't get them to take action now,

now, now the problem is somebody else will come and close the deal or maybe don't forget. I mean, life happens. Or like in my own case, I let the thing go on for too long. I called the guy and guys like, I beg no vex, you know, my wife going to hospital and blah, blah, blah. So, you know, I had to spend the money. Eventually the guy came back, you know, But you know, like I say, life happens, school fees will come up, wife gets sick,

you know, all kinds of things. So that hurry aspect really, really important. Now let's look at it. Now we're losing Tom Hopkins framework. You're a total stranger. And when you're dealing in big, big money, can you get somebody to trust you? Can you demonstrate a need? And then can you be able to get them to take action quickly on something that costs 18,000,000 naira, especially since all of us are total strangers. It's a different thing if,

excuse me, it's a different thing if you guys already have a personal relationship. Like let's say I'm a real estate person. Excuse me and I have uncles who are big boys and that is why big girls, it's a different thing. I can approach them and in one month close a deal that is 18 millionaire. You know, my first, my first, my first gig in real estate. It happens all the time, like in insurance when I used to sell insurance was one girl in the team who did, I can't remember,

was it like 40 million or something? And I was shocked AS40M like how? But then after the meeting, you know she was talking to a few people and her overhead and it turned out I was family connect, you know she has two or three big aunties. So collectively, you know all their policies, everything together where I was like around that kind of 30 something 4040 M So it happens. But when we were total strangers, trust, need help,

hurry, do all of that in one month and collect 18 M is not likely. Another framework that Nigerians should know which is KLT, which is know like and trust. And the whole idea is before we get somebody to buy from you, they should know who you are. They should like you or they should trust you. I think about it, we're talking about 18,000,000 on cash. Who's going to hand over 18 million to someone you don't know? Who's going to hand over 18

million to somebody you do not like or who's going to hand over 18 million to somebody that you do not trust? It is a tall order to say that you can get KLT somebody to know you, to like you and to trust you in less than one month and then just drop you 18,000,000 cash. Of course, if you guys already know yourself, you know, from before you have a classmate who is paid off, you know? Yeah, sure, no problem. We're talking now total strangers because remember that the people who have come into this organization, the baby lawyer, the customer service person and the marketer, OK, the marketer, she has experience,

she's been working in four other organizations. But a lot of the people that they're going to be talking to will be total strangers. That's a tall order. Remember, I'm not saying it's impossible. It can happen. I just think it will be luck. And looking at these frameworks, these philosophies now either attention, interest, desire, action Tom Hopkins trust need help and hurry and then KLT know like and trust. We can see that it is a tall order.

Another problem I'm sure you guys have realized from the beginning of the episode is that, excuse me, some of you business owners have very unrealistic expectations around what the average person can achieve in sales. You don't think you can pluck somebody from anywhere, put the person in the job, and then just go and sell? It doesn't work like that. If it did, all of us would be billionaires by now, because I would have just gone, hired my cousins in the village and say,

oh, I'll go and sell on my behalf and then I'll be a billionaire straight doesn't work like that. It's a huge problem. So when you're business owners, you have unrealistic expectations. You need to temper your expectations. Let's be realistic here. You don't just block anybody off the street and then put them in a hospital and say, oh, I'll go and cure medical patients and yes, go and cure patients. It's not like that.

So the problem is even compounded when we throw people into these jobs. We don't even give them training and resources that they need to carry out the job. You'd be surprised how some people say, oh, I'll go and sell. You don't even buy credit for the people, like really you're never buying credit for them. They should go and sell because when they're broke, you think they'll use their own money and buy credit to conduct your own business.

Because of how or because of who? So let's say you are an organization now that believes in KLT, know, like and trust or you believe that ADA is the truth, attention, interest, desire and action, unless you are that kind of organizations, because there are organizations like that. You know, for me, I believe in more of them. Direct outreach. You know, let's figure out who these people are. Let's go outside and chase them.

That is what I believe in outbound. But then or rather that's my or that's always my starting, my starting point. But then some people believe more in inbound, which is let's be here and let's attract people to do business with us. So that is where KLT comes in. Know, like and trust. If they know, like and trust us, they will chase us down and then Eid, attention, interest, desire, action. If you do write stuff online or offline, people would not be rushing us.

So if you're that kind of real estate company, you're that kind of business with that kind of sales and marketing philosophy, what kind of things should you be doing? You should be doing lead capture campaigns. And unfortunately, lead capture campaigns. It's not as if you can execute that thing in just one month. Because if we could execute it like that sharply in one month, then all of us would be billionaires right now.

I wouldn't be making this podcast. I'll go and sit down and do Lee capture campaign. You know, sharp, sharp. Before you know it, you know, one month I've passed. I'm a billionaire and I'll be with Tinobu in where did he go for his holiday? Where was itself? I can't remember that Afro Caribbean island, you know, I'll be chilling there in my mansion. All right, so Lee capture campaigns now. A lead is just anybody who has done something to show that they might be interested in your product or their service or sorry your product or your service or that they have a problem that your product or service can meet.

We have to get them to raise their hand in a way. We have to get them to do something or to provide contact details so that we will now be able to start the process of relationship nurturing the long term, toasting over on WhatsApp or e-mail or maybe doing direct outreach because we call them or we go to the house or to the office and then close the sale. But we have to do something that would generate a lead. First of all, a lead again is just a contact, a phone number and e-mail address of somebody who has done something to show that they are interested in your product or service or to show that they have a problem that your product or your service can solve.

But like I said, either way, this is a process that's going to last more than one month on average. Because if it lasted less than one month on average, believe me, all of us would be stinking rich by now. So what kind of lead capture campaigns can people like this be doing in the real estate space? Well, traditionally, you know, people talk about lead magnets. That means you just create something online, excuse me, like a brochure or some kind of downloads, you know, PDF that has valuable information and for people to get it, they have to exchange contact details.

So, you know, put up blogs, content marketing, you know, things like that. Create valuable content on topics that, excuse me, land buyers in Nigeria would find valuable. So you know, you put up things like, you know, 5 things to consider before buying land in Lagos. You know, it's the kind of thing that somebody who might be thinking about buying land might click on or understanding land titles in Abuja, you know, land title that is like C of O, you know, and things like that.

People might click on that. Or if you write something on investment hotspots for land in Benin City or the prime investment locations for real estate in Port Harcourt, you know, people will take on things like that. How to avoid land scams in Nigeria? Yeah, I think that one will get lots of downloads, I'm guessing, but I think it might. Or you can write something about the future of real estate development in Eco Atlantic, you know, those kinds of things.

Those are the kind of things that some people were just curious to drop their contact details, but then there's some people who might actually be in the process of looking around, or maybe they're not looking around now or maybe they're thinking of doing it next year or two years or whatever. Sure. But you will get a couple of e-mail addresses. One thing for sure, somebody like me who's not even considering real estate as an investment opportunity, people like me are not going to drop their e-mail address.

I mean, like for what? So those kinds of campaigns. But of course, it doesn't take a month to just execute this sort of thing. Now, the philosophy is when you drop this thing, you get the content, the gate. The content just means before you download this thing, give me your phone number or give me your e-mail address. Some other people leave it open. I advocate you leave it open. That's what I do with my podcast. My podcast is not gated.

It's not paid for. But if your thing is open, include a call to action so that people take the next step with you. Traditionally, people would say call social number or subscribe or come into the office or schedule an appointment. You know something. And that's the philosophy I'm using with this podcast. My content is not gated. It's really available, but there's a content, there's a call to action at the beginning and at the end.

If you're curious, call me. You have this problem, call me, you have this problem, call me. And that's how I use my own podcast for lead generation. So excuse me, my suggestion to this newly minted real estate agent, my advice to her when we're talking was this yoga, looks like a comfortable guy. He seems articulate, seems educated around real estate issues. As I said, yes, I checked the guy's social media. He seems all right.

And I asked her, OK, as a real estate company, what are you guys selling? Because some real estate companies, real estate companies, as far as I know, for those of you in real estate, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I think people who are in real estate, what they're selling is either investment opportunity or homeownership. So that's what real estate companies are selling. They're saying, excuse me, come and buy land and make money on this land.

Buy it at 5 million, it will appreciate 215 sell. You keep turning your pocket. That's an investment opportunity. Or take this land, you can use it as collateral to get loans to finance your business. You know, that's an investment opportunity. Or they're selling home ownership, which is buy this land in 10 years, build your own house and become a landlord or build your own house. You don't have to answer to landlords.

So essentially that's what real estate companies are selling. So I asked her, we would have explained to you now your organization, what are they selling? She said, oh, that's easy. They're selling investment opportunities and I say good now since your guy is comfortable, articulate, sophisticated, educated around these sorts of things. What you do now is especially with the ideas that we've spoken about in front, you know, about lead generation and stuff like that.

We need to get your guy on Instagram, Reels, LinkedIn, live sessions, producing content, maybe even radio shows because there's somebody who is in the fertility space. And this is one of the things that I advised for the guy I was able to hold the guy up with I think was Niger, Niger info. One of that's one of the radio stations in, in Lagos, you know, get him on a couple of shows for one hour a week talking about these sorts of issues.

In our case was fertility. So one hour a week, he's showing his leg, his his area of expertise that lots of you are having infertility problems. You have gone to try IVFIVF is not working. You have spent 3,000,006 million, 12 million, IVF is not working. Do you know that there are natural processes that you can go through? We can detoxify, we can look at hormonal levels. We can do like this, we can do like that. And it can increase your chances of conception by 30%.

And you don't have to be spending millions and millions every year. There's some people who listen to that radio program who are curious and who will call or who knows somebody and say in there, I was listening to this radio program, this is what the person said. You've already spent 12 million. What have you got to lose? Just call this guy. His office is in lucky call this guy. So I told her, I hope that kind of thing up with your guy as well.

So he's going on radio shows and then talking about real estate as a tool for wealth creation or how you can use asset appreciation to grow your wealth and you know, all these, you know, stuff, stuff, stuff like that, using real estate to build money. And then of course, at the end of the day, there'll be a call to action that if you're interested, you know, call this number or visit this office or subscribe to this newsletter or whatever, whatever, whatever.

But there'll be a call to action. So those are some ideas that we just tossed around for her, for her company. But ultimately, this is the real reason why it's hard to close real estate deals. Shop, shop. And that's because real estate is a complex sale. I repeat, real estate is a complex sale. If you've been listening to this podcast for the last two or three episodes, this comes as no surprise because I think I've already done one episode within the last week, Sha, to talk about simple sale scenarios and complex sale scenarios.

Real estate is a complex sale. There are lots of parties involved. There's a buyer, there's a seller. Each of them have their own lawyers because everybody wants to check title. Who wants to go and drop 18 million in plot of land? And then next thing you realize that you bought basic for yourself because by the time you come for bricklaying ceremony, people just come all over the place and say we are the owner of the land caviar tempo EFCC do not touch.

You now realize that you put yourself in serious trouble. If I'm one of my one of my guys, I thought he avoided one serious issue. He was talking to the person. He was like, man, this is a sweet deal. And then he showed up one day and then he saw painted in black. EFCC beware. Doesn't seem that I saved him. He would have dropped millions of naira and then next thing, EFCC beware. So everybody's trying to shine their eye and there are multiple parties involved.

The buyer has a lawyer. The buyer, of course, will discuss with his wife or discuss with her husband because he wants to drop that kind of money, family money. And then next thing there's a problem. Everybody wants to consult with lawyer, consult with a guy, consult with a business partner, business associate. Some people like if you're dealing with a retiree, the person was saying well, let me discuss my children. So there are lots of parties involved.

You can't just smooth talk different parties in one month and then close the deal. The price, it's expensive. Now some of you are big boys and big girls and so 18 M is nothing for you. But for some of us, like if you dash ME18M right now, no more, I'll be happy. And believe me, you would have sorted out a couple of my problems. So for most people, 18,000,000, remember that's their cheapest piece of land. They have some lands, 100

million. So 18 million people don't. People just don't drop big money like that in a short period of time. They just don't. That's just the way it is. 18K yeah, people drop 18K all the time. 18,000,000 that's a different case altogether then complexity, Bill said it's complex. People are trying to make decisions. The location, is it good? What about access to hospital, access to school? That's if the person is thinking about homeownership.

Every person is talking about appreciation. They will now be asking other kinds of things. OK. Is it close to city center? Are they building main road? Where might they build main road? Is there access to water board? What of NEPA transformer? You know, all these things. They're trying to balance a lot of things. Then you're trying to assess legal title. Is the CFO legit? What would they have? OK, it's only customary right of occupancy.

The customary right of occupancy is illegit. Then also trying to gauge land value. OK, that's me for 18,000,000. Is this land actually worth 18,000,000? If I drop 18 M on this thing, am I going to drop 18 M now? And then next year I'm struggling to sell it. I can't even find buyer for 12 M. So they're trying to gauge land value. These are the things that make you complex and it's the reason why you can't just rush over something like this.

And then because of the number of people involved and because of level of risk involved, people are naturally trying to form relationships because relationship is a normal form of risk mitigation. It's a very natural form of risk mitigation. You're trying to get involved in the deal. Numbers are big, buyers are plenty. I mean, different parties are plenty. You know, you start building relationships, you're talking to people, you're just trying to few people out.

You're trying to know what's up, trying to know who is who. It's a normal form of risk mitigation also so that in the Nigerian context, if anything goes bad, you know that OK, I'm going to call police, I'm going to call military and this is the person I'm going to set the police or the military over. So if nothing else, people are building relationships so that if anything goes to hell, they know who to go and Jack and how.

These are the reasons why if you look at it from a very critical angle, it is very hard to close a deal in one month for an 18 piece, a plot of land worth almost 18,000,000 naira. Well, like I said, it can't be done. I mean, there's nothing that's impossible. It can be done. I'm saying that for the average person, these are the reasons why it's going to take more than one month. So summary, if you're an employer, in fact employer in general, OK, let me just limit it to real estate.

If you're an employer in real estate, give your employees time to wrap. Don't hire somebody in January and then think that by sorry, February 1st and then by February 27th they brought you 18 M in real estate. Let's be realistic. That's the reason why in real estate you will have high turnover. You hire somebody February 1 to sell for you. By February 14th, they've left your company. This is the reason why unrealistic expectations.

Give your employees time to ramp. Then also give them the training. It's not easy as taking a marketer and then saying, Oh yeah, going to sales and one more. It's not that easy. If it was, we would all be rich because I would go to the bank, I'll borrow money and I'll go to the village, I'll hire all my cousins, and then we'll just go out and conquer the world. So it's not that easy. Then on a practical note, since I'm doing since I've been doing a couple of trainings for people who have business teams that work for them.

This, so this particular one, I'm talking to the employers. Talk to your team. Stop being aloof. Some of you enter your carrying shoulder. Yeah, I understand. But The thing is, these people that you're hiring, a lot of them are new, They're newbies. And because of that, they're scared because they don't know a lot. They don't know what to do. They've never sold real estate before. And that's what happens with the average person.

If they feel like they don't have all the information that they need, if they're not comfortable enough to talk to you for answers, the average person will stay, will play it safe. They will stay in a small zone, so they don't want to make a mistake. And this fear of not making mistake or not broaching into new territory, that's the kind of thing that's stopping your business from expanding because people are not talking to new prospects.

They're not talking, having different kinds of business conversations. So don't be aloof, be available so that if somebody has a question, they should be able to go to your office without being afraid that Olga will shout on her and be able to ask that, oh, Olga, somebody came to the office. They asked this and this and this and this. I'm not sure of that. What do you think we should do? Be available, Don't be aloof. Let people talk to you.

So yeah, this nature thing of I'm your guy, I understand because you paid the cost to be the boss, you know, but still put your shoulder down small. Let your people be able to approach you, be available, talk to your team, answer their questions. That's how you're going to get money. Because these people are new. They don't know gang, they don't know sushi. Somebody that has been a marketer for years, you wanted to go and do sales.

First of all, you're lucky that she didn't run away. So she's willing. She's up for the challenge. At least be in the office to answer her questions. You don't tell her that, look, I don't care, my own is go and sell. It was that easy. Would all be billionaires. I would have gone home, I'd have raised money, gone home, hide every single person in my village. And then I say, well, all of you go and sell and then I'll be a billionaire.

Sorry. That's it. And that's all. Remember if you'd love to connect with me, then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.